1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to newborn infant care, and particularly to accessories for cribs and other sleeping accommodations for infants. More particularly, this invention relates to means for securing an infant in a safe, desirable posture while sleeping, and most particularly to a prop for keeping an infant on its side while sleeping.
2. Description of Related Art
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (xe2x80x9cSIDSxe2x80x9d) and other infant maladies are among reasons infant care personnel and mothers alike prefer that sleeping infants, especially newborns, sleep on their sides. One school of thought holds that SIDS occurs as a form of suffocation arising at least in part because the newborn is too weak to turn itself onto its side. Especially when infants are ill, mucous discharges have been accused of clogging nasal and lung passages. Means for keeping newborns and other infants sleeping on their sides are a way of life for care personnel.
Probably for millennia, infants have been propped on their sides by rolling up cloth or other material into a cylindrical shape and wedging it behind the infant""s back. Because terry cloth towels in particular offer the advantages of appropriate size, common availability and softness of texture, they commonly serve the purpose. Towels can become unrolled by infant movements, however, and are not ideal for the purpose. When rolled up, towels also can be less flexible and tend to try to straighten out on their own. An object of fixed, cylindrical cross section and appropriate length and flexibility would serve the purpose of an infant prop much better than towels.
Infants, especially newborns, have a natural instinct to nurse immediately upon waking. Being unable to locate a nipple, whether of its mother or a surrogate such as a pacifier, immediately can lead to psychological stress and correlative crying well known to parents and child care personnel. Means for enabling infants to locate a pacifier would be beneficial.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a prop for sleeping infants.
It is another object of this invention to provide a flexible, fixed form for an infant prop which will not unroll or straighten out during use.
It is another object of this invention to provide an infant prop having a soft, tender texture for direct contact with a baby""s skin.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide means for newborns and other relatively helpless sleeping infants to locate a pacifier immediately upon waking.
The foregoing and other objects of this invention are achieved by providing an infant prop composed of a cylindrical core covered with a flannel sheath. The core is approximately two inches in diameter and sufficiently long to form a U-shaped arch reaching around a sleeping infant. It comprises a flexible shell filled with plastic prills or other beads sufficient to maintain its shape but with enough space inside to allow folding and flexibility. The flannel sheath includes an opening for inserting the shell at one end and attachment means for a pacifier disposed facing the infant""s mouth, while the other end of the prop reaches around the infant""s legs and extends along its back to keep the infant lying on its side. In an alternate embodiment, the prop is shortened to approximately the length of an infant and placed on one side of the infant, while a second, unconnected prop is used on the infant""s other side. The shells of the alternate embodiment are filled to compaction with prills and thereby relatively inflexible.